Hiking Vermont trails during foliage with awesome views

Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s tallest mountain, at 4,393 feet from the floor of the Champlain Valley. All photos by Glenn Fay

The Champlain Valley looking southwest towards Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Each year during the months of September and October mother nature gives us the most beautiful show you can imagine.  If you plan it right you can see the amazing blazing fall foliage light show beginning in September that runs through October and into November.  Sugar maples offer the bright orange and pink colors, aspens and birches turn yellow and oaks offer a burnt orange hue. Together, with the evergreens, a wild symphony awaits the eyes, but that is only part of the sensory experience. The changing panorama of Vermont pictures are there for you to capture.

The crisp breezes and smells of autumn bring a sensory experience of deja vu that makes this the favorite season for many Vermonters. Even in a place where people joke about the fifth season “mud season” and summer never being long enough, autumn is revered for a je ne sais quois character that falls farther from the sheer beauty of the trees.

Something happens when you get above tree line. Not only does the flora and fauna change and the sights and smells, but the sensory experience is different. I remember a five day hike I once made with a buddy, virtually all above the tree line. Without trees, water, buildings, sounds and other man-made contrivances, my mind had to reconfigure itself to a new reality. I noticed that my brain started producing its own music if you will. I learned to listen to myself and nature in a different way.

But as gorgeous and exhilarating as the beauty is, don’t let it fool you. The trees are deformed by the severe winds, arctic cold conditions and meager nourishment from roots feebly gripping rock ledges. This particular environment is only for the hardy. When we are snug and warm next to the wood stove on a blustery night, all hell is breaking loose up here. On the day we hiked to the summit is was 60 and relatively calm on the valley floor and mid-thirties with 45 mile per hour winds on the summit!

But modern conveniences of good footwear, wicking fabrics and even survival gear make foliage hiking pretty safe if you pay attention to the weather. It is not uncommon to see hundreds of hikers on the summits in a single day. Unlike the diversity of individuals we interact with most days, the folks on the trail are united by common values not to mention a love of hard work!

Looking out over Burlington and the lake puts my life in context. All of those problems from yesterday seem far away and not as daunting. The important things in life come into sharper focus. Family, health, friends, and living in the present. Being able to come up here is a privilege. Life is good, after all. We gotta get up here more often!

You can buy Glenn Fay’s award-winning photos in our online store.

10-10-10 only comes once every thousand years so we need to make it a good one. We can only fantasize what 3010 will look like, given the predictions for 2100 with submerged coastal cities, lack of water, food and water wars, and billions dead from plagues and lack of food and water. But today, we have hope that we can do something to change that future. Today, millions of people all over the world are participating in the Global Work Party, the brainchild of Bill McKibben and company at 350.org. On this day of hope we work, and celebrate the Earth and the people who are working to preserve it as a healthy sustaining place for humans. What are you doing today?

All photos by Glenn Fay.

Please comment on the gallery!

“Glenn, there’s a big bird over here you’ve gotta see.” I could hear the excitement in Donna’s voice, from 40 feet away. She was pointing into a meadow that was blocked from my view by some black cedars.  I flicked my camera on an slowly walked toward her, hoping it wasn’t  soaring a half mile away like the hawk I spotted yesterday. As I got closer, the bird swooped into view, 10 – 15 feet over the tall grass, tilting, swooping, looking for prey. It was a beautiful reddish brown color, with a white patch on it’s rump, with a two to two and a half foot wing span. What a gorgeous bird!

I adjusted my 70-200 zoom lens and started clicking photos as the bird swooped and soared around the meadow. The light was diffused and over cast but good as I snapped shots of the bird flying at me, tilting, turning, swooping up, down, away. I must have snapped a dozen pics, all the time, trying to steady the camera and keeping the bird in autofocus from only 40 – 50 yards away! It was a dream come true. I finally had GORGEOUS high resolution photos of a beautiful bird in the wild, probably some sort of hawk. He finally swooped into the far end of the meadow and I lost him. I checked my display window to see my images and get a first look at the stills and see if I could identify this beautiful bird.

“No Memory Card” was the text in the display! Oh NO!!! It couldn’t be! I left my memory card at home in the printer yesterday! I calmly put the camera back in the bag, smiling.. Always looking for the bright side, I decided that this would never happen to me again. I would buy a second card at the very least and never leave home without my bag!

What was the beautiful bird? According to the Audubon Field Guide for Birds it was a Northern Harrier

And the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says it is a medium-sized hawk with a long tail, long, slender, rounded wings. white rump. and that it lies low, with wings held up in slight “V.” While the males have a gray belly the females have a brown underside. Yep, that’s my bird. Honest… Guess I will have to make a trip back to her meadow and this time I will have my memory card.

Has this ever happened to you?

Photo: Birdman of El Paso, flickr

Late summer days in Vermont remind us of why we are here. Close to the to of my list are the seasons. It’s mid-September and there is barely a tinge of tint in the higher maple forests. That is usually a signal that we will see a well-timed explosion of brilliant color in the next couple of months. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. These flowers in the dancing light and shadows are too good to let go by unnoticed and are part of our Vermont pictures this week.

These white flowers grow in a tangle of flowers seven or eight feet up a trellis on an east wall of a house by the lake.

The post-peak tinge on these beauties hints at the late season and the lake in the background will extend their lives a few weeks longer…

This patch of Blackeyed Susans was shaded and protected enough in the rich Ferrisburg clay to really put on a show for a few minutes while illuminated by a ray of sunlight.

I recently downloaded a pdf booklet on dragonfly  photography by Vic Berardi that has some simple techniques anyone can follow with any type of camera. Now is a good time of year to do it as they are plentiful. This little beauty gave me many chances to capture his image. Let me know if you would like the pdf file on dragonfly photography, which is free to share.

Sunflowers are some of my favorites, and are loved by birds as well!

Chinese lanterns gleaming in the lazy afternoon sunshine, reminding us of the orange season ahead.

If you like Glenn’s photography, check out our Vermont Landscape Note Cards suitable for any occasion. And don’t forget, we support cold and hungry people.

My son recently arrived home for part of the summer, to spending and book money, visit friends, and enjoy R&R from the busy life of a college student. Each break when he comes home is a swirl of 20 years of memories of a baby who has now become a man, negotiating the world and learning how it all works. No reunion would be complete for me without some time outdoors together to catch up on where we are in life.

And so off we went to the country- which isn’t very far if you live in a place like Vermont. There are very few moments in life more satisfying than tromping through the woods with your son and hearing all about his new adventures. And of course the camera is there to record images of the place and time.

This is a set of photos taken during the past year that show four seasons in Vermont. They may be pretty enough to frame as landscape art. You can buy Glenn’s Vermont landscape photos as a set of beautiful note cards from the LoveEarthAlways store here: Vermont Scenery Note cards.

Buy this beautiful set of note cards from the LoveEarthAlways store here: Vermont Scenery note cards.

Make no mistake about it. Vermont has got her green on. Spend any time outdoors and you quickly realize that there seems to be an infinite green palette this time of year. Just looking at the buds and shoots and leaves and stems, and the totality of the woods you see everything from yellowish greens to greenish yellows, green-greens, darker, brownish and even violet tinges. Then there are the wildflowers. Floral colors will be featured next week and you can also see them in previous Vermont Pictures Sunday Gallery posts.

Many photographers’ favorite light is early morning of late afternoon or evening with low sun splashing across the landscape highlighting and dramatizing subjects.

Why they call them the Green Mountains. Often the air, especially near water is hazy and offers muted tones.

I have always felt a sensuous infatuation with clouds and the sky, as if you could taste or smell their spectacular beauty.

The crisp autumn reality of Canada geese flying south in November is countered with the arrival of their v-shaped formations in spring, as they follow their ancestral migratory path to often endangered breeding habitat.

How could you not love the smell of newly mowed hay? This field was recently mowed in late May.

We hope that you enjoyed this week’s gallery. Don’t forget to take advantage of our Father’s Day 25% off sale going on now on all of our Earth-friendly products. Everything from the popular Aero Press coffee maker to green board games to photo note cards, tote bags and beeswax candles are on sale. AND we are giving away a LoveEarthAlways water bottle with each order. As always you will get free shipping with orders totaling over $100. Use code FathersDay10 when you check out.

Photo by Glenn Fay

There are flowers and there are flowers. Not all flowers are equal in a photography sense. Some can look like they are easy to photograph, and in reality can be a pain in the neck to try and get all the detail. Others are fantastic, they look fantastic, they are easy to photograph and the picture comes out how you want! And then there are the ones that surprise you. They look average and uninteresting but get in close and you are staring at the surface of another world. All the curves, lines, color comes out when you take the picture.

Some flowers look better very close up because of their size and detail. Perhaps with a smaller flower, it may look uninteresting from an arms length away but get it up close and it may look magnificent (Small yellow daisies, Rock Rose.)

Other flowers such as the rose really look good from any distance, mainly because they are beautiful and because we know what flower they are. But just because we already know what it is doesn’t mean we need to cut corners with our photographic artistic skills.

Flowers are a matter of personal taste. So which one do we start with? Your favorite one is the best place to start. A beautiful as a big garden rose in bloom with the fragrance that should be bottled and sold, for example, will not only inspire you but you’ll want to spend time getting a great photo of it.

Each flower, depending on size and color, will need to be photographed differently. I would photograph a Rose differently than I would a Jasmine flower, or an Impatience. (more…)

There’s one surefire way to start becoming a better photographer. Stop taking pictures.

A picture is what you take when you accidentally mash your hands on the shutter release while your camera sits idle on the living room table. It’s when you bump the camera while it hangs from your shoulder and snap that oddly angled picture of your feet. It’s the photos you took of your friend just because they asked you to. It’s also generally what most of us are shooting the first time we pick up our cameras – myself included.

But if you really want to advance your photography, you’ve got to stop pressing that shutter release just because you can. Instead, take the time to create a vision. Stop taking pictures. Start creating images. (more…)

Clean Water For a Healthy World! That is the theme for the 2010 World Water Day. Do you have an inspiring photo to show off? Enter the LoveEarthAlways World Water Day Photo Contest and be recognized and win beautiful LoveEarthAlways prizes!

The 3 winners from our entries will be awarded LoveEarthAlways Water bottles and Tote Bags and a 10% off Gift Code fior LoveEarthAlways products.

Specifications for photographs:

1. Entries must be submitted in digital file format. All files must be in JPEG and must be at least 300 dpi.

2. The entries must be original photographs taken by the contestants. By entering the contest, a participant acknowledges and warrants that the submitted photograph is an      original work.

3. Each participant can submit one entry only.

4. Each photograph submitted must have a brief description of no more than 50 words of how it relates to the theme “Clean Water For a Healthy World”. The photograph can focus on actions, activities and practices connected to the theme.

5. Please submit your entry by email to: Contact@LoveEarthAlways no later than 08:00 EST time on March 2oth, 2010.

6. Please indicate the following details in your entry submission: name, mailing address, e-mail address.

7. The picture entries will not be used for any commercial purposes by LoveEarthAlways but will be posted as winners on our website and blog.

8. The entries will be judged by a panel of LoveEarthAlways judges.. The judges’ decision will be the final. Prizes and certificate will be awarded to the winners on March 22nd 1010. The selected photographs will be displayed on our website LoveEarthAlways.com and blog LoveEarthAlways.com/community for World Water Day March 22, 2010.

Email your entry NOW!

Three Lenses Every Photographer Should Own

It’s a question I hear a lot from new photographers: “what lenses should I buy?”

And while there are a lot of different types of lenses appropriate for many different situations and needs, time and time again I find myself primarily relying on three lenses in my bag: a fast general purpose zoom (18-55mm), a macro lens and a telephoto zoom (70-200mm). These three lenses will give you enough versatility to shoot in almost any conditions. Also, these three lenses are available for just about every camera system and lens mount on the market, and they won’t drain your pocketbook too much.

The general purpose zoom

This is the lens that sits on my camera the most. For automatic point and shoot cameras, something in the 18-50mm range is best… for DSLR- 35mm format cameras, a 24-70mm will work. This will give you the ability to go fairly wide while also being able to zoom into objects off in the distance. This lens might be your kit lens, but it should preferably be fairly fast (a fixed f/2.8 if possible) to give you greater control over depth of field. It makes a great “walkabout” lens when you aren’t sure what you will be shooting.

The macro lens (more…)